


Dear Laurie

by velocitygrass



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Community: sga_flashfic, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-07-08
Updated: 2007-07-08
Packaged: 2017-12-08 21:03:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/765983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/velocitygrass/pseuds/velocitygrass
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John still wrote her a Christmas card every year, 17 years after their divorce.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dear Laurie

**Author's Note:**

> Contains past John Sheppard/Original Female Character and implied John/Unnamed Male Character (Rodney in my mind, but you could read it as someone else). Written for the backstory challenge at sga_flashfic.

_Dear Laurie,_

_yes, it_ is _still summer._

 

John still wrote her a Christmas card every year, 17 years after their divorce. It sometimes didn't arrive on time, but it did arrive eventually.

 

_I'll be in the States next month and would love to see you and the kids (and check if Paul is treating you all right)._

 

He came to her wedding.

He still didn't think she was right, but she was clearly happy with _Paul_. John did a check-up on him and took him aside after the ceremony to threaten him if he ever hurt Laurie. No matter what had happened, he felt he had the responsibility and the right to do it.

Laurie never complained.

 

_I'd like to bring a friend, if that's not a problem. You'll like him. (And if you hate him, I'll find a way to keep him out of your way.)_

_We'd arrive August 7th._

_I hope you and the kids are well (and Paul) and that we'll see each other soon._

_Love,  
John_

 

"I love you."

She didn't answer. John would have let it go, if it had been the first time that he felt that something was wrong between them. Or the second or third. But it wasn't.

"Laurie?"

She bit her nail, as she always did to buy some time, then she turned to him. "No, you don't."

"What?!" He couldn't believe what he was hearing. If anything he had suspected she'd met someone. But even that was hard to imagine, because she would have told him. Her honesty was one of the things he loved most about her.

"Let's not discuss this now. I shouldn't have said anything."

And that was so unlike her. It was just wrong. "You... do you think I can just turn off the lights and sleep after that? What the hell makes you think I don't love you?"

"John, I... I know that you _think_ you love m-"

"Think?! What..." He didn't know how to continue, because she looked miserable and for once he had no idea what was going on in her head. He had married her because he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. "Of course I love you," he said quietly.

"Yes, you do," she said with a kind smile and stroked his cheek with her soft fingers.

He still didn't understand.

"Just not the way I love you," she continued quietly, pulling back her hand.

One month later after he'd pleaded with her, shouted at her, argued that he didn't just love her as a best friend, they got a divorce.

 

_PS: You were right. I'm sorry it took me so long to realize it._

 

She tasted like sunshine and strawberries and it was impossible for John not to join her when she laughed her big honking laugh that crinkled up her freckles covered nose. In that moment John could think of nothing that would be better than falling in love with your best friend.


End file.
